With so many Mondays off this time of year, and with more expected for teacher preparations, one must wonder why not every week? Well the main objection is that this would mean less time for breaks and holidays. Which is enough to close down any conversation. After all, we all saw how bad this year’s short winter break was, and the thought of having it even shorter is enough to close down a discussion.
Although this is certainly one way of organizing things, it is hardly the only way for us to cut down our week, for as many schools in Colorado have done, you can just as easily add an extra one or two hours onto each school day and obtain the same result. I would argue that this would be far preferable. But understandably, even the thought of elongated hours is enough to scare many away, especially those who have after school activities. Many days already end late, and having them even later is an unfortunate side effect of longer days.
uckily there is a third option. We could simply lose a few hours of school. While this may seem too good to be true, it is supported by evidence from studies done in New Zealand, Spain, and Iceland. All af which indicated an increase, at the very least, no decrease when it came to productivity. In fact, these studies went so well that unions managed to give 86 percent of the population the right to work less according to the BBC.
These studies, although meant for work, can be applied equally to education, for the longer you work, or the longer you learn, the less effective you are, and the more time you spend daydreaming or scrolling social media. Think about how productive you are in second or third period compared to seventh period. In fact a separate Microsoft study done in Japan, found a 40% sincrease in productive capacity. Thus It may be that with less actual learning time, we may, conversely, learn more.
Aside from these obvious economic and fiscal benefits, we could also see many benefits to our mental health. The workers in that same Icelandic study also reported lower anxiety, and less stress. Aside from the obvious effect of actually getting to relax and enjoy our weekend. For we all know the feeling of the week beginning before you’ve even registered its end.
Finally, although it may seem impossible to imagine a world with a four day week, remember that for most of our history, we were not entitled to any weekend at all, and with so much more automation, and far better modes of education, we can finally afford a shorter week.
